IAEP Members Begin Receiving Arbitrator's Award in Wage Averaging Victory

June 30, 2009

AMR recently began distributing monies to members of Local 152, EMS professionals with AMR of Victorville, California, as a part of the arbitrator's award in last year's wage averaging arbitration.

Since the arbitrator's decision was released in early 2008, IAEP attorneys Linda Mouzon and Harry Berman have been diligently working to see that AMR complies with the Arbitrators' awards and ensure that all employees who are owed money are paid. As a part of the decision, AMR was ordered to make all affected employees whole. Local 152 members will receive over $20,000, while members of former Local 108 who work for AMR of Riverside, California, will receive over $100,000.

"Attorneys Mouzon and Berman have done an amazing job following up with AMR and ensuring that these EMS professionals receive the compensation they deserve," said IAEP National Director Matthew Levy. "These thousands of dollars are monies that they should have gotten when they originally worked their overtime."

Following an audit of their Seattle operations by the U.S. Department of Labor, AMR management was forced to change their overtime payment policy to a weighted wage averaging method. The DOL first instituted the weighted averaging method because they found that when employees worked different shifts at different rates, employers would often have them working the higher paying shifts in the earliest part of the day or week so that they received overtime pay on the lowest paying shifts.

Although the DOL audit only addressed the Seattle operations, in January 2005 AMR unilaterally changed all of their operations to the weighted average method. The DOL intended this to be used as a minimum requirement, but AMR agued that they were only required to pay the weighted average regardless of what the collective bargaining agreement outlines.

Employees who would have been paid more through the collective bargaining agreement's pay rates were forced to receive only the weighted average. The IAEP immediately filed a grievance on behalf of Local R12-52 and the numerous members who suffered financial harm.

IAEP Attorney Linda Mouzon represented the union at arbitration, arguing that the DOL only required a change in Seattle because its overtime policy did not meet the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act sufficiently.

Arguing that the collective bargaining agreement between AMR and Local R12-52 was violated, Mouzon explained that under the wage averaging method some employees lost significant overtime monies because this was simply the minimum requirement of the DOL. AMR stated the change was required, and argued that if an award required them to pay some employees more than the waited average, "equity demands that the Union reimburse the Employer" in the amount of these additional monies.

The arbitrator agreed with Mouzon and ruled in favor of the IAEP. The arbitrator stated that AMR violated the contract "when it paid employees overtime calculated on the basis of a weighted average of the straight time hourly wage rates paid for a week when that calculation resulted in an overtime payment lower than that required by the established application of the overtime provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement."

The arbitrator also ordered AMR to return to the previous method of overtime payment in Victorville and rejected their argument that the IAEP be responsible for reimbursement of the additional monies paid.

AMR has issued checks to Victorville employees who their records show lost money by income averaging. Any members who believe that they were entitled to a payment and did not get it, or believe they did not get the correct amount, and have documentation to support their claim, have until August 30, 2009 to contact Attorneys Mouzon or Berman at (805) 650-6983.

Other Top Stories and Info

Top Stories Background Top
Top Stories Background Bottom